OUR NEW INITIATIVE : HERBAL PROMOTION

About us

We are group of individual consisting of three persons myself Vishwa Ranjan ( Patna ) , Pankaj Jain ( Biharsharif ) and Vedanand Jha ( Araria ) . We decided to collaborate with our best effort and committed to contribute required necessary skills ie :

1. Programme management and institutional linkage

2. Business and forward linkage

3. Practical and grass root experiences as well technical know how.

The very purpose of this collaboration is to establish a business model and demonstrate at local farmer group and gradually develop a model for scale up. Vishwa Ranjan and Pankaj Jain is equal share partner . In this model Vedanand Jha ( 75 ) was engaged as expert in herbal farming . He since last 20 years is engaged in herbal farming in his own areas. He is advisor to Vaidhyanath Industries. Since long he is cultivating, producing, processing and supplying raw materials as well final products to Vaidhnath.

Selection of species:

We had plan to explore the strategic outcome of both species of Tulsi, botanical name Ocimum ie Ocimum bacillus and Ocimum centum. Ocimum bacillus is used to extract oil only whereas in case of Ocimum Centum its entire part is salable. Hoever at the time of cropping good quality of Ocimum centum was not available. We initiated with Ocimum Bacillus only and brought it from Barailly district of Utter Pradesh.

Place of Cultivation: Rajgir

Rajgir is a block in the district Nalanda of State Bihar . It is almost 110 kms from Capital City Patna. It is religious as well a popular destination for both Budhhist and Jains. The plot lies within the jurisdiction of Chhabaria Village. Rajgir Block and Nalanda District

Arrangement of Land:

There was no written agreement with farmer for use of land. The verbal agreement was for use of land for first 6 months ie one cultivation season and use of land would be for demonstration and commercial purposes.

Purpose of intervention:

Experience cultivation of Tulsi in context of Bihar , explore model of replication and popularise it as means of enhancing income of marginalised farmer.

Area of cultivation:

Plan was to initiate cultivation in 10 acres, out of this the farmer would carry out cultivation under our supervision in 5 acres. The remaining 5 acres would be taken on lease where we would directly carry out cultivation with farmer’s support but it could not be feasible. So we started in 5 acres of land by our own.

Some observations:

1. Due to some hesitation as minimum exposure about herbal farming and its financial benefits it was difficult to convince farmers and collaborate with them.

2. Cost Details shared ahead is on the basis of bifurcation of cost of cultivation in five acres of land. As per our experience minimum land for cultivation should be five acres. If it is less than 5 acres break even point would be at higher side.

3. Distillation process involves both time and money so we need to be strategic to optimize our profit. However there are many options now available across state ie

a. Procurement of distillation unit ( medium size) cost around 4 lakhs

b. Explore for government subsidy which is also available but some linkage is necessary. One can get up to 80% subsidy

c. Sharing basis, out of extraction of oil the unit holder claims for 1 liter of oil out of 8 liters. ( We opted the last one )